This invention relates to the fields of computer systems and communications. More particularly, a system and methods are provided for automatically recognizing indicia such as telephone numbers, electronic mail addresses and the like and enabling various forms of communication with an entity associated with the indicia.
Electronic communications (e.g., documents, multi-media files, web pages) often contain indicators or identifiers associated with people, places and other entities. For example, electronic mail messages and textual documents often contain telephone numbers, electronic mail addresses, names of people or businesses, etc. A person accessing an electronic communication may wish to contact the entity associated with an identifier. But, unless the person already knows a method of establishing contact (e.g., via an electronic mail address or telephone number), he or she may have to do some research or initiate another communication in order to determine how to make contact.
Click2Dial by ATandT provides one method by which someone accessing an electronic communication can contact a person or business whose telephone number is included in the communication. In particular, with Click2Dial the person accessing the communication may click on the telephone number and the Click2Dial system will facilitate the creation of a telephonic voice connection with the entity. However, this system requires the telephone number to be coded or represented in a specific manner, and the application used to access the communication must recognize that coding and interpret it appropriately. More particularly, Click2Dial cannot automatically recognize an uncoded telephone number or other entity identifier and enable a person to communicate with the entity.
A product commercially available under the name xe2x80x9cFIySwatxe2x80x9d provides a browser plug-in that makes pre-determined sequences of characters (e.g., words) xe2x80x9cclickablexe2x80x9d by a person using a web browser. The person may click on the sequence and be presented with an option such as to view a map of a geographical area identified by the sequence (e.g., a city or point of Interest). This system requires the sequences to be pre-specified and, in addition, does not enable communication with an entity associated with a sequence.
What is needed then is a system and method for automatically identifying an entity identifier or indicia (e.g., telephone number, electronic mail address, name) in an electronic communication (e.g., an electronic mail message, a word processing document, a spreadsheet, an audio file) and, in response to a user""s selection of the identifier, enabling one or more forms of communication with the entity.
In one embodiment of the invention a system and methods are provided for scanning an electronic communication and identifying an identifier or indicia of a person, business or other entity. When such an identifier is located, it is transformed to make it selectable. When a user selects the identifier he or she may be presented with a menu of one or more methods of communicating with an entity associated with the identifier.
For identifiers such as telephone numbers, electronic mail addresses and other indicia having predictable patterns, the system may apply a set of heuristics or rules to identify or select them. Other indicia may be identified because they match pre-determined patterns or are associated with entities (e.g., people, customers) known to the system. Further, in one embodiment of the invention a user may interactively identify a portion of a communication as being associated with an entity. In this case the system may apply additional processing measures (e.g., database lookup, network search) to learn means of communicating with the entity.
In different embodiments of the invention, in response to a user""s selection the user may be presented with options to establish a voice link with the selected entity (e.g. via telephone or VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)), send a voicemail message or an electronic mail message, send a facsimile, perform a lookup or reverse lookup (e.g., of a telephone number), etc.